


Sentiment and Self Preservation

by RunRabbitRun



Category: Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Genre: Gen, One Shot, Secret Identity
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-08
Updated: 2019-11-08
Packaged: 2021-01-25 14:57:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,204
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21358105
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RunRabbitRun/pseuds/RunRabbitRun
Summary: It's been long enough that no one remembers who Teldryn really is. Well, no one except for that one looney Telvanni wizard....
Comments: 2
Kudos: 54





	Sentiment and Self Preservation

**Author's Note:**

> Quick lil thing based on this [gorgeous artwork by Thana-Topsy on Tumblr.](https://thana-topsy.tumblr.com/post/188358128884/psst-teldryn-was-the-nerevarine-pass-it-on-a)
> 
> I've only played just a wee bit of Morrowind but the idea was too good to leave alone. 
> 
> Plus, the Dovahkiin AND the Nerevarine? Two Chosen Ones for the price of one? How could I refuse?!

“So, how was Akavir?” Neloth asked.

Teldryn wished, not for the first time since Brenna hired him, that he’d asked for more than 500 Septims.

It was already nearly double his usual price. The little Nord who’d approached him in The Retching Netch may have looked like a milkmaid in ill-fitting armor, but he knew trouble when he saw it. He made his offer, expecting her to refuse, but then she’d dropped a sack of gold coins on the table and, well… He’d always had an appetite for trouble.

Now, as his ‘milkmaid’ knelt stock-still on the floor of Tel Mithryn, her eyes rolled back to the whites and her body wrapped in foul black tentacles, he contemplated his many regrets.

Daedra, ancient curses, dragons, dovahkiin, and now uncomfortable questions from a looney Telvanni… He really should have asked for a thousand _at least_.

“Don’t look so worried, this happens every time,” Neloth said, stepping around Brenna’s hunched form, “And every time she has emerged, nary a scratch on her.”

Teldryn glowered at the old wizard, who simply smirked and went back to perusing his research materials.

That was all easy for him to say; he was mad as Sheogorath and twice as heartless.

“I daresay you’ve seen worse things,” Neloth went on. Gods, was he just going to _keep talking?_ Teldryn rather preferred when the wizard simply ignored him. “And you haven’t answered my question. How was Akavir?”

Teldryn sighed and slouched into his chair, casting a brief look around the tower. Neloth’s apprentice was out for the day, sent on some guarshit errand so Neloth could observe Brenna’s work with the Black Book uninterrupted. His servants were gone, too. Brenna was ‘occupied’ and could be for several hours.

“I wouldn’t know,” he said, slowly. “I’ve never been.”

“That’s not what the rumors say,” Neloth crowed. “Not that I put much stock in rumors. Did you start that story, then? Trying to throw the Empire off your trail?”

“No, but now that you mention it that would have been a good plan,” Teldryn said. “I don’t know who started it, but it’s worked well enough for me so far.”

“So says the spellsword operating out of a wretched little mining settlement on a spit of land so useless the Nords couldn’t wait to get rid of it,” Neloth said.

“Everyone has high and low points in life,” Teldryn intoned evenly. 

“Some low points are decidedly lower than others,” Neloth shot back. “Tell me this, what is the Nerevarine doing playing hired muscle for a Nord child with no sense of self-preservation?”

Teldryn tensed. He knew it was coming, but _that name_ still sent a spike of pure ice through his heart.

“I’m surprised you recognized me,” he said, evading Neloth’s probing. The shaft down to the door beckoned with flashes of cool, blue light, but he steeled himself and did not move from his seat.

“We did meet face-to-face,” Neloth reminded him with a sour look.

“Yes, and you barely gave me the time of day, if I recall.”

“Perhaps it seemed that way to you,” Neloth sniffed. “I didn’t get to be a Master Wizard by being forgetful.”

“Could have fooled me,” Teldryn sneered. “You still call for your old steward even though she’s been dead for nearly a month.”

“That’s the difference between a mediocre mind and a great one,” Neloth said airily, “I remember what matters and do not concern myself with trivial things. Unlike you, Nerevarine,” he titled his head at Brenna, still immobilized and half-phased into Apocrypha.

“I go by _Teldryn Sero_, now,” Teldryn said, grinning with all his teeth, “And you do realize she’s the _Dragonborn_, don’t you? Or was that too trivial for you to notice, O Great One?”

Neloth made a disgusted noise. “You hero-types are all the same. Destinies are cheap, and fate will have its way sooner or later. Miraak was Dragonborn as well, was he not? If Brenna had lost her battle with him I have no doubt he would have risen to take her place, and if _he_ had failed I doubt a week would pass before some other n’wah appeared to do the Gods’ bidding. You should know this; _you _were hardly the first Nerevarine yourself, s’wit muhrjul_. _We mortals are already subject to the whims of uncaring deities but you lot seem to delight in throwing yourselves at their feet, begging to be moved around like so much cattle.”

Teldryn held himself still, reminding himself that, whatever else Neloth was, he was indeed a Master Wizard, and if Teldryn attacked him it would get very, very ugly.

_He’s a mad, evil bastard, but he’s not your enemy. At least, not yet._

“Strong words,” he said, “For a mer so cowardly he’d rather hide out on this godsforsaken rock, trying to cheat death while simultaneously refusing to do any of the work required to actually achieve it.”

Neloth tutted and flapped a dismissive hand at Teldryn, “Don’t resort to petty insults, it doesn’t suit you. Neither does this farce, playing thug for a God-Addled outlander.”

“Is there something I should rather be doing? Torturing apprentices, perhaps? Bitching endlessly about tea?” Teldryn said, fighting to keep the snarl out of his voice.

Neloth sighed and looked heavenward, as though praying for patience. “I am, unfortunately, cursed with a boundless curiosity. It’s what drove me to ‘hide out’ on this horrid little island in the first place. Could you, for a moment, remember who you are supposed to be and answer me honestly: what on Nirn are you doing out _here_, with _her_?”

Teldryn had to smirk. _Impatience, thy name is Neloth._

“Why do you want to know? I thought these sort of trivial things were beneath your notice.”

“Perhaps I’m merely killing time until my latest test subject comes out of her trance state. Or,” Neloth made a little conceding motion with his hand, “Perhaps I am Dunmer, and you are a figure of Dunmer legend, and I would like to know why you’ve tied yourself to a Nord child with a decidedly Nord destiny, Nerevarine.”

Teldryn shrugged, “She paid me. And if you call me that one more time I’m going to sic an Atronach on you.”

“You should be so lucky to summon anything before I cleaved your soul from your body,” Neloth said, more griping than actually threatening, “And that can’t possibly be the only reason… Sero. You could be anywhere, doing anything. You could be king of Morrowind right now, or worshipped as an Avatar of Azura.”

“Mortals trying to be Gods is what got me into the whole mess in the first place,” Teldryn pointed out.

“Evasive, aren’t you?” Neloth leaned against a table with a sigh, “Indulge an old mer.”

On the floor, Brenna began to stir, her breath coming in short gasps and her eyelids fluttering.

“Perhaps…” Teldryn murmured, then shrugged, “Perhaps we God-Addled fools have to stick together.”

“Sentimental,” Neloth said with a scoff, “But I believe you. Foolish, but understandable.”

Teldryn wanted to fling one more insult at the wizard, not particularly caring if it didn’t ‘suit him’, but Brenna had begun to awaken and he had more important things to do.


End file.
